I can’t believe I’ve been here for 3 weeks already, and that I’ve got a week (or less) til race day. I find myself wishing for more time, or time back after having to take it easy the first week due to the ankle injury and getting COVID – both of which I’m mostly recovered from. I say mostly because of the ankle, though doesn’t seem to be affecting my running, I can feel on hard step downs or foot plants that are more awkward. They also feel noticeably notchy when I walk downstairs in the morning, not to mention it’s still larger than my other ankle though doesn’t feel swollen. COVID-wise, I found my breathing and lungs a bit congested during Sunday’s threshold workout.
But I’ve managed through and think I’ll be as ready as ever to go on Friday. The biggest factor for me is workload and the related stress. I’ve been working my regular day job the whole time I’ve been here but to be in sync with my company, I have to work split days where I get some work done during the day, then plug back in night for meetings and timely comms with my US-based co-workers. To add, I’ve got a big deadline and a presentation to deliver the minute I get home and step off the plane. I had hope to get it done before this week so I could take all next week off, but looks like that’s not going to happen.
Soon my friends, both running and supporting, will all be here. I’ll want to go out and play and hang with them for sure. But it’s going to be tough balancing act between race prep, hanging out/chilling, and work…
Tech Notes
Since getting and recovering from COVID my vo2 max on my Garmin has been trending down and my Race Predictions (marathon, half, 10K, 5K) have all gone up in the wrong direction. I’m gonna take this will a grain of salt since I don’t think some of those measurements are that accurate to begin with, but perhaps on a relative basis. But I’ve never seen a trend up from running where I know I’m at least maintaining my fitness (or maybe I’m not?). It could be the beta (formerly alpha) software that I loaded on my Epix 2 and their algos and calcs are off still. I had hoped they would iron everything out after several weeks since joining in the program. I was prepared to rollback to the last public version.